1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic wallet management system which controls electronic wallet devices for monetary data transfer, an electronic wallet device itself, an electronic wallet management unit, a terminal station therefor, as well as to a storage medium containing an electronic wallet managing program. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic wallet management system which deals with the loss or failure of electronic wallet devices, as well as to an electronic wallet device, an electronic wallet management unit, and a terminal station designed therefor. The present invention also relates to a storage medium containing an electronic wallet managing program for realizing the system.
2) Description of the Related Art
Electronic wallet devices carry electronic money. People use them to make payment electronically, without using real money. Electronic wallet provides various advantages over cash, one of which is that payment can be made more promptly because there is no need to give or receive the change.
People may, however, lose their electronic wallet devices at times. The loss of electronic wallet devices may be handled variously, depending on their device type. For example, in the case of prepaid type devices, which can be used without user authentication, there is no way for the loser to have his/her electronic wallet reissued. This means that the loser would not be able to recover the electronic money at all, unless he/she discovers the very device that is missing. In contrast to this, such electronic wallet devices that require user authentication can be reissued at their respective issuing financial institutions when they are lost. In this case, the monetary data remaining in the lost electronic wallet will eventually be carried over to the reissued device, thus allowing the owner to use it without problems.
Reissuing of such an electronic wallet, however, consumes a long time. Specifically, those that require later settlement, like securities, may take a few months to be reissued. Another such example is banking cards, which manage monetary data not directly, but only through the customers' bank accounts. It takes a couple of weeks for the loser to get such a banking card reissued. What is worse is that the customer cannot spend his/her own money during the time he/she waits for the delivery of a reissued electronic wallet. Those problems in connection with the loss of electronic wallets are also true in another situation where the customer's electronic wallet device is broken down.